CA Supreme Court ruled that unlicensed school employees can give insulin injections

Commentary by Sam Spital, California State Board License and Criminal Defense Attorney

It strains credulity to believe the Supreme Court declared that California law permits unlicensed employees to give insulin injections, albeit pursuant to a doctor’s order. It is a slippery slope and this opens the door to even more situations in which the training and education of a licensed nurse are being marginalized.  The American and California Nurses Association based their arguments on California law (Bus. & Profs. Code section 2700 et seq.) that heretofore has held only licensed nurses can administer insulin.Specifically, the Legislature has mandated in the Nursing Practice Act the requirements for licensure with specific courses of education, scientific knowledge, skills and clinical training, and these include the administration of medications [Bus. & Profs. Code section 2725(b)(2)]

The author did not relate any of the pros and cons, nor alternatives to an increasingly important concern in public schools throughout California since more and more parents are discovering school nurses are unavailable on a regular basis (only 5% of the schools in California have a full time nurse on duty; 26% have no nurse on duty and the rest have only part time nurses).

No citation to the actual Supreme Court case was set forth in the article, but the name, citation and link are as follows:  AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION vs. TOM TORLAKSON, August 12, 2013 (Case #S184583) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/documents/anavtorlakson2013.pdf